Week Five Nov 27 – Dec 3rd

Been down in my hometown this week, so everything has been a bit disorganized. I have suffered from lack of motivation and some slight injury worries, but somehow came through it all and finished the week with a bang.

My coach decided to start mixing things up weekly from now on, so each week is going to be different with lots of new session to learn! I am used to following his instructions now, and even though I am sometimes tempted to miss something out, I always end up doing what he says. The only thing I don’t really take much notice of is pace suggestions on the swim or out-door bike, I simply am not that sophisticated yet on the swim, it is all one pace. Bike its more about the terrain and the weather dictating how much effort I put in, I just try to push hard enough to feel I did a proper job

Mon – I was busy setting things up, signed up to local gym and did an hour of weights. Also ordered me a new Turbo trainer!

Tues – Planned- Swim
6 x 100 easy warm up.
2 x 25 hard off 30 seconds recovery
2 x 50 hard off 30 seconds recovery
2 x 100 hard off 1 min recovery
6 x 300 IMRP off 30 seconds
4 x 50 easy cool down
Well that is what I was supposed to do, but due the pool being 20m (bit hard to do 25m or 50m), and due to the fact I have one pace, I did a simplified version. It was interesting to use my Garmin watch in the pool, something that isn’t allowed in Japan, and it enabled me to get a better idea of my splits (although not ever having used it for laps or splits before, it took a little getting used to). Also it would seem the watch can’t handle indoor laps in a 20m pool so I had to ignore the distance and the pace, but I could at least get an idea of the time.
The 6 x 300m set looked like this  – 7:18, 7:33, 7:44, 7:42, 8:00, 7:39. Not good by any normal swimmers standard, but I can see the effects of tiredness as I slow down through the sets.
Bike – Turbo
20 min building warm up
10 x 1 min alternating single leg drills
5 x 5 mins big gear at a cadence of 70rpm off 2 mins recovery
10 mins easy
Received my new Kickr indoor trainer. Set up quickly and tried to do the set as prescribed, but found it tough to get used to, I couldn’t maintain cadence, was very little difference between my effort and the recovery,  so my results were terrible, with average power showing 93w. I was in shock and depressed, and I started to question my goals.
(As an aside, after being questioned by my coach as I found out the fact I forgot/ignored the instructions to calibrate meant these results were not accurate… guess it helps to follow instructions.)
Gym – 45 minutes

Wed
Run.  – 15 minutes warm up, 5 x 3, 2, 1’s , 5 mins easy cool down
First 3 mins easy, straight into 2 mins moderate then straight into 1 min hard, repeat 5 times straight through.

I had been suffering from slight swelling on my knee along with stiffness, so was a bit worried but ended up managing fine. I actually really enjoyed this once I got used to it. I cheated a bit in so much as I did the 3 minutes easy going up a slight slope, then ran down the slope for the 2 minutes moderate and 1 minute hard
Set 1 Pace Easy 5:37, Moderate 5:10,  Hard 4:34
Set 2 Pace 5:55, 5:10, 4:37
Set 3 Pace 5:44, 5:03, 4:30
Set 4 Pace 5:49, 5:04, 4:29
Set 5 Pace 5:45, 4:57, 4:06

Thurs
Build run. 15 warm up, 25 moderate, 10 at moderate/hard then back to 10 cool down easy pace. Did as prescribed but rather stupidly forgot to use the lap timer so don’t have breakdown of pace etc.  Was 11:02km with average pace of 5:27 in total. Again I enjoyed having t try to stick to a plan rather than just running  x number of KM @ same pace.

Fri
Swim. 6 x 100 warm ups. 10 x 200 moderate, 2 x100m cool down
The original plan was much more complicated than this, but firstly I forgot my watch and as there isn’t a pace clock in the pool was bit fucked. Secondly was rather crowded,  and thirdly it’s a 20m pool. So I ended up guessing my way through and adjusting to fit the flow. All good.
Bike. Total 20 mins warm up, then 3 x 15 min hard(er) off 5 mins. 5 min cool down! Actually was bit confused what I need to do for indoor, as coach’s plan only mentioned outdoor. So I again guessed appropriate indoor equivalent. Was all rather unfamiliar so I didn`t manage to get a proper breakdown but at least after calibration my power rose a little to 124W average (132 normalized, whatever that means), Still pathetic but was a mix of warm up, hard effort and recovery so not a very accurate measurement of FTP….. but I can be confident that unless I improve my power then I wont be getting anywhere near the front of the pack.
Gym – 60 mins strength training

Sat
100 minutes long run. 18:12km. Pace 5:31.
This was supposed to be a negative split, with second half faster than the first by 15 seconds per km. Unfortunately I didn’t think to use lap timer (hey, I am old and feeble-minded and not used to all this fancy pacing and stuff… I will get there eventually), so was running mostly on feel. Afterwards did a quick calculation from km breakdown…. Was about 3 seconds lap average faster on second half, so technically was negative split…. Although coach wasn’t best pleased and told me to go slower on the first half next time. Actually not that easy to do, but will try!  This is much hilly-er route that my previous long runs, which helps explains the slower overall pace. No real problem with knee, felt a bit stiff towards the end but seems fine

Sun
Bike 3 hours
3hrs. 76.16km. 25.5kph
Yay, enjoyed the ride, even it was wet and cold. Same route as last week, but managed almost a 1km increase in hour pace, to 25.4kph, my fastest ever outdoors training ride. Was lots to see, from rats and rabbits skipping across the road to a full size deer dead on the verge (didn’t look like road kill so I am assuming was shot by hunters and collapsed after running off). The ride was uneventful but I felt good the whole way, didn’t get tired and managed big negative split, and also stayed reasonably warm with my new booties, winter tights and thermal undershirt!

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